ChrisMathews  

RECENT ARTICLES

Ritual Self-Mummification: The Strange Case of
Japan's Auto-Deities

The monk undertakes a 3000-day quest that ends with him being buried alive. He limits himself to a diet of buckwheat dough, hazelnuts, and nutmeg for 1000 days, then restricts himself to bark and the roots of pine trees for another 1000-day period, towards the end of which he starts to drink a toxic tea that begins preserving his internal organs. He is then entombed while still alive and left to die. Once exhumed, he has become sokushinbutsu, a living god, and is placed in a shrine to be worshipped. Sound unbelievable? It's not—though outlawed now, the mummified remains of the Shingon sect's ascetic monks are still present in small Buddhist temples scattered throughout
Japan's main island...    read more

        Fate Magazine,     [Japanese Religion]

Living With The Past

In a dusty field just outside Phnom Penh, a solitary Buddhist monument houses the skulls of 8000 people. Disinterred from mass graves nearby, the bones remain unnamed, for no one is able to identify these anonymous victims of the Khmer Rouge. Welcome to the Killing Fields of Cambodia: testament to tyranny and major tourist attraction...    read more

        Kansai Time Out,     [Travel/Culture]

In Praise Of Praise

"Oh, you can use chopsticks!" It's a comment that every foreigner in Japan is only too familiar with and it usually provokes a reaction somewhere between mild irritation and outright indignation. This affair has become something of a cliché, both in the frequency of it's occurrence, and the frequency in which it is commented upon by ex pats. From a Western perspective, this unwarranted and ofttimes effusive praise is perplexing if not condescending...    read more

       Eye-Ai,     [Japan/Culture]

Cambodia's Forgotten Coast

150km south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's Kampot Province features beautiful scenery, two large national parks, and a scattered selection of semi-abandoned colonial towns. Wide dusty highways carve through rice paddies and farmers' fields that are the origin of the famous Kampot pepper, as well as a variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices. It is a tranquil, as yet largely undeveloped area that slumbers quietly under the remorseless Cambodian sun and occasional transient dust cloud...    read more

       Eye-Ai,     [Travel]

Exam Blues

At a private high school on a wooded hill outside Yokohama, seventeen year-old Sayako has reached the half-way point in most important year of her education. At the end of this year, she will sit the exams that decide which university, if any, she enters, and the direction her subsequent career will follow. Sayako is acutely aware of the significance of the exams and the effect they will have. "I have to do well this year. This year is the most important year of my schooling. It can decide everything for my future"...    read more

        Eye-Ai,     [Education]

    

The Elephant In The Corner

The issue of visits to the Yasukuni Shrine and the 14 Class A war criminals enshrined there has continued to dominate and determine regional politics for the past year, yet the leadership of the LDP considers that it has no place in the debate for the forthcoming party leadership election. The LDP consistently downplays the importance of the Yasukuni issue, regardless of it's continuing negative impact on political relations between Japan and its neighbours – primarily China and South Korea. So why do the visits continue, and why are they off the agenda for the leadership debate?...    read more

       Kansai Time Out,     [Politics]

All photos: Chris Mathews